ORGANISERS of a village festival say it has raised more than half the cash they need to repair an ageing church.

The flower festival at St Oswald's Church, Lower Peover, earlier this month attracted thousands of people curious to see the hundreds of scarecrows scattered throughout the surrounding area.

The scarecrows, of which at least 340 were made and 240 entered into a competition, were created to advertise the festival, held to raise money for urgently needed renovations of the listed 14th Century church.

Organisers have been pleasantly surprised by the huge drawing power of the scarecrows, spread across Lower Peover, Plumley and Allostock and Lach Dennis.

The success of the festival has brought in more than half of the £80,000 needed to renovate St Oswald's back to its former glory.

Chairman Pat Wharfe says the scarecrows have also helped to bring the community closer together.

She said: 'It has been extremely successful, but the greatest success is the goodwill and community spirit that has been created in the three parishes.

'So many people joined in with the fundraising, not just regular church-goers but also people from the wider area.'

She said: 'It gave many people so much happiness and lots of people have become friends through it.

'Everyone who entered the scarecrow competition should be thanked.'

Though the festival is now over, some of the scarecrows have found permanent homes - in Manchester. Pat added: 'The head gardener of Christie Hospital heard about them and he is putting some of them up in the hospital's gardens so to make patients feel happy, and also because he said he was short of gardeners!'